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By 24-7 Press Release
Sisseton, SD - The South Dakota Prairie Gateway just launched a new website that illustrates the many economic development efforts and business opportunities in eastern South Dakota.
South Dakota Prairie Gateway is a partnership to promote economic growth in the state, with a particular focus on the eastern region. Member organizations work together to attract businesses and develop their local economies. The website is one of the products of that collaboration.
“This website partnership showcases the different and yet similar economic development efforts in the area and provides quick links to these partners via links to their websites,” said...

Building a framework in five steps that you won’t snore over.
Every economic development director has created or discussed a strategic planning document. This process is critical to building a successful plan. And, getting started doesn’t need to be a formidable process that is overwhelming--start small and build on the success of each stage.
Your organization's strategy should start with five basic components: purpose and goals, advantage, target, marketing, and lastly, niche. These components, if built correctly, can provide a solid framework for use in grant writing, business attraction and workforce campaigns as well as internal stakeholder communication.
Purpose and Goals
Why does a...

It’s past the halfway point for 2018, how many of these strategies have you implemented? Enjoy one of our archived articles for strategy development.
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Published by Golden Shovel 12/19/2017
The 2017 calendar is running out of days and there is a steady supply of cookies and eggnog in offices all over the country. This time of the year brings people together for conversations and optimism for the coming year. It is a special time of the year. It is also the right time to review successful content marketing strategies to be utilized in 2018.
Before going to the big whiteboard and mapping out...

By 24-7 Press Release
Midland, Texas – The Midland Development Corporation (MDC) has launched a state-of-the-art website that displays the organization’s services and touts Midland’s many advantages and amenities.
Midland has an auspicious location about halfway between Dallas and El Paso, Texas. It’s the third fastest growing metro area in the nation. MDC’s new online portal includes a host of innovative tools, yet is easy to use and optimized for mobile devices.
“The Midland Development Corporation is proud to release a website that highlights our organization’s role in the community, and provides a wealth of information about living, working and doing business in...

By Aaron Brossoit
Golden Shovel Agency unveiled PlaceVR in Toronto at the 2017 International Economic Development Council’s Annual Conference. Our team showcased the first 360 videos of familiarization tours and site tours to the industry. For economic development professionals promoting their regions, these spherical videos are the best way to virtually bring people into a region or community.
In September of 2017, however, the VR viewer options that were available for showcasing the videos were still limited. There were the top quality systems like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and the Playstation VR which presented a great VR experience, but was burdensome...

It is no secret that new introductions and relationships are fundamental to the success of an economic developer. Having the ability and tools to build a robust network of key industry contacts is critical to the success of failure of many of the economic developers I know.
Conferences and tradeshows provide popular gathering events for people to come together and trade contract information. But there is another gathering place for economic developers and business owners: your website.
Your website is attracting people every day. Have you reviewed the website traffic to see who’s visiting and how you can attract more visitors? With...

We’ve all heard the importance of data, and storytelling, but we haven’t spent much time working on storytelling with data and hard numbers. Communities have to not only have tangible numbers to show industry and site selectors, but they also have to have a compelling story for why the industry would want to move there.
Let’s examine what you could be doing better to tell your community story.
You are not a marketer.
As an economic development professional, you wear many hats. But the most important hat you wear is the leader. Too often economic development directors try to lead and try to...

By 24-7 Press Release
Pickerington, OH – Violet Township has launched a new website, which will serve as a valuable tool for the region’s economic development. The online portal showcases the area’s many business advantages and aims to attract business.
Site selectors for large projects, small business owners looking for a place to start up and existing business looking to expand will all find helpful information on the website. It features available sites and buildings as well as details on the area’s infrastructure and three distinct growth corridors.
“This state of the art website tells the story of Violet Township and will...

So your community didn’t get on the finalist list for Amazon HQ2, now what? The site selection process is changing and adapting with the trends in business. While it may still be important to look for potentially large company relocations, many good business expansions can occur with small to mid-sized companies. But gaining the attention of these businesses requires some creative approaches.
Incentives don’t matter as much as talent
Workforce, workforce, workforce. The ability for a community to attract and retain a workforce is ranking at the top of the incentive list. Business owners may still be interested in traditional incentives, but...

Northeast Kentucky Development has officially launched this week, a organization that aims to attract new businesses into the 12 county region, which will serve as a valuable player for the region’s economic development. The development organization will highlight available sites, buildings, and resources available for new and expanding industry into the area, primarily in Aerospace and Automotive.
Sam Howard, Managing Principal of Northeast Kentucky Development says he started the organization to provide the region with a voice. “Counties within the region are typical of rural Kentucky. We have an abundant availability of land at a reasonable cost. We have a workforce...

By 24-7 Press Release
Barber Business Advisors and the Golden Shovel Agency have agreed to a strategic partnership in which the two firms will jointly offer consulting services to economic development organizations nationwide.
The announcement was made while representatives of the two firms were attending the Consultant Connect ECONOMIX conference in Frisco, a Dallas suburb. BBA is based in Dallas and Golden Shovel is based in Little Falls, Minnesota.
Representatives of the two firms attending the conference said the partnership is designed to bring additional services to communities that seek to market their locations for business attraction.
“Promoting the economic development narrative of communities...

The Golden Shovel Agency Team is excited to celebrate National Economic Development Week, May 7th through May 11, 2018. This is a fantastic way to increase awareness to the hard-working economic developers across the United States and especially to our clients who are committed to increasing awareness to their communities. Thank you for building our communities and helping the next generation succeed.
Economic development, by definition, has the goal of improving the well-being and quality of life for any state, region or community by expanding the businesses, expanding the workforce and growing incomes so the tax base can be expanded. In...

By 24-7 Press Release
LITTLE FALLS, MN, April 30, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ --Promoting your community’s economic development narrative has never been so important. Social media and virtual reality video advancements give economic developers an astounding arsenal of communication tools.
Aaron Brossoit, CEO of Golden Shovel Agency, announced earlier this month the new partnership with Kentucky Association for Economic Development (KAED) and Golden Shovel.
The partnership hopes to bring more services to the communities in Kentucky including communication and marketing; while also working with KAED to craft success stories for the members of the association.
Best practices in communication and marketing will be highlighted by...

A Centerville company is gaining statewide attention for a proactive new benefit it’s offering to employees. Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds was on hand for an October 31 ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new daycare facility in Centerville that will largely serve children of Lee Container employees.
While chatting with Lee Container President Robert Varnedoe at a governor’s deer hunt a few years ago, Gov. Reynolds gave early encouragement for his idea to open a day care in Centerville. At the ribbon cutting, she praised Lee Container’s efforts and the impact such actions can have on overall economic growth.
“We want to acknowledge how...

By 24-7 Press Release
Red Oak, IA - Executive director, Shawnna Silvius is committed to raising the awareness of Montgomery County, IA and to expanding economic development and growth of the region.
The communities of Montgomery County have already begun launching downtown development initiatives, working to establish gap funding to spur housing, industrial and business development and pairing with local school districts to expand workforce training and improve workforce and business attraction.
To ensure the success of the new economic development programs, the Montgomery County Development Corporation Board of Directors partnered with the national communications firm, Golden Shovel Agency. The Board recognizes the...

By 24-7 Press Release
Little Falls, MN – The Little Falls Convention & Visitors Bureau, the main point of contact for visitors to the historic Central Minnesota town, has launched a new website to highlight the wide array of attractions and activities in the region.
"When we market, we want to send people to a website that they can easily find what they are looking for. Our new website will help the LFCVB direct tourists in the right direction. This will be a main navigation point for any tourist wanting to explore Little Falls,” said Sabrina Koelsch, LFCVB marketing manager.
The user-friendly online...

There's been a war on security, cyber security, and if you have a WordPress site you might be at risk, like the 50,000 users who have recently been hacked (don't believe, us? read here). But that's only one of the reasons why a WordPress site might not be the best fit, especially in Economic Development. Another key concern is it's code quality, an integral issue is the quality of the WordPress code itself, such as old use of versions and contributors who did not follow the strict structural standards.
If that still doesn't have you convinced, let's bring up another topic...

By 24-7 Press Release
Aaron Brossoit, CEO of Golden Shovel Agency will be presenting during the 2018 CALED Annual Training Conference in Monterey, CA March 14th - 16th.
LITTLE FALLS, MN (Golden Shovel Agency) –- Monterey, CA will be a Economic Development dream for leadership this March as the 2018 Annual Training Conference kicks off.
Aaron Brossoit, CEO of Golden Shovel Agency, looks forward to building relationships at the conference. “Training conferences are always a great place to engage with Economic Development leaders,” said Brossoit. “There are always key connections to be made.”
Aaron Borossoit will be presenting at this years Annual Training Conference...

Eau Claire, WI – Momentum West has launched a new website and valuable tool for economic development. The online portal is comprehensive representation of the resources and infrastructure in West Central Wisconsin.
The website features the region’s Gold Shovel Ready sites certification program as well as available sites and buildings. It showcases business incentives as well as talent development initiatives, as the area is placing emphasis on attracting and retaining talent.
Site selectors, entrepreneurs and business owners will find the user friendly and packed with helpful information. Each county served by Momentum West has a profile page complete with pertinent information and...

By Aaron Brossoit, CEO
Economic development is about building communities. This type of transformation requires leadership and hard work. The economic developers I see everyday have a range of skills and wealth of experience to draw from to perform their jobs, and these individuals are community leaders. Some economic developers recognize their leadership role and are able to guide boards and community groups through strategic plans. Others are quiet servant leaders who diligently work hard for the community and are able to accomplish monumental tasks and initiatives by serving others.
There is no right or wrong way to be an economic...

By 24-7 Press Release
Maple Grove, MN - Great River Energy, a wholesale energy provider to 28 member cooperatives, has launched a revamped website that highlights its economic development efforts in Minnesota. Site selectors, entrepreneurs and business owners will find a comprehensive suite of user-friendly tools and information on the site.
The new economic development portal is a comprehensive repository featuring data from its member cooperatives that span the state, in-depth information on industry sectors, resources for businesses looking to relocate and more.
The site was rebranded with an updated look and feel. It features an interactive map of Great River Energy’s 28...

By fDi Intelligence
IPAs are enhancing their tech strategy with geographic information system platforms, proptech applications and even virtual reality to cater for increasingly sophisticated site-selection processes. But will data-driven innovation ever replace the personal touch? Jacopo Dettoni investigates.
In the world of big data, investment promotion is finally catching up with other sectors. A growing number of economic and property developers are looking at data-driven solutions to showcase their assets or communities, thus increasing their chances of attracting and retaining investment. This in turn is prompting tech companies to develop tailor-made applications for the industry.
For instance, solutions based on geographic information system...

GSA News

By 24-7 Press Release
Sisseton, SD - The South Dakota Prairie Gateway just launched a new website that illustrates the many economic development efforts and business opportunities in eastern South Dakota.
South Dakota Prairie Gateway is a partnership to promote economic growth in the state, with a...

Building a framework in five steps that you won’t snore over.
Every economic development director has created or discussed a strategic planning document. This process is critical to building a successful plan. And, getting started doesn’t need to be a formidable process that is overwhelming--start small...

Events

In this webinar, Golden Shovel’s Marketing Director, Kirstie McPherson walks through how to create a simple strategy framework in five steps: this process is critical to building a successful plan.
Your...